Bid tracking for commercial GCs: pursuit, sub-management, and the bonding math on one record.
Commercial GCs pursue 60 to 200 projects a year with a 25 to 40 percent award rate. Each pursuit involves owner relationships, architect references, sub-bid solicitation, and bonding capacity math. A CRM built for AEs selling SaaS cannot model that reality. Strkr's commercial GC configuration ships the primitives most firms end up building themselves in Excel.
Commercial general contractors run a different sales motion than specialty subs. A $120M-revenue commercial GC pursues 80 projects per year with a 35 percent award rate across ground-up builds, tenant improvements, and renovation work. The sales motion involves owner relationships, architect relationships, qualifying based on bonding capacity, and running the sub-bid solicitation process from the GC side. The CRMs most commercial GCs inherited (Salesforce with contractor overlay, Dynamics with construction modules, or a vertical tool like Followup CRM) are each strong at a slice and weak at others. The patterns below describe what commercial GCs tell us about their current reality.
Owner and architect relationships are untracked
The real pipeline source is who awarded the last three jobs.
A commercial GC's pursued work comes from three primary sources: direct owner relationships, architect references, and competitive bid lists. The GCs that outperform run the owner and architect relationship side intentionally; the ones that underperform run it accidentally. The data to see which owners and architects have driven awards over the last three years should be a saved view, not a half-day reconstruction project. Strkr's architect relationship object and owner relationship tracking surface this data as a dashboard rather than as spreadsheet archeology.
Bonding capacity math is on a whiteboard
Can we bid the $18M job without exceeding bonding capacity.
Commercial GCs operate under bonding capacity limits set by their surety. A firm with a $50M aggregate program and $42M of bonded work in flight has $8M of remaining capacity, which changes daily as projects complete. The question "can we bid the $18M downtown project" requires understanding current bonded WIP and projected completion. Most firms track this on a whiteboard that the finance lead updates manually. Strkr's bonding capacity dashboard pulls bonded WIP from the accounting system via API, projects completion dates, and shows available capacity for new bids in real time.
Sub-bid solicitation is a separate process
Soliciting subs for a bid runs on BuildingConnected or iSqFt, not the CRM.
Running the sub-bid solicitation process on a pursuit (sending plans to 30 subs across 15 trades, tracking which subs responded, collecting sub bids by the deadline) typically happens on a specialist platform (Autodesk BuildingConnected, iSqFt, Procore Bid Board). The data about which subs responded and which subs did not stays in that platform. When the pursuit record in the CRM asks "how many sub bids are in," the answer requires logging into a second system. Strkr integrates with these platforms so the sub-bid status surfaces on the pursuit record.
Pursuit decisions lack historical context
Should we chase this hospital renovation.
A go/no-go decision on a pursuit should consider historical performance on similar projects: have we won hospital renovations before, what was the margin, what did the owner say about our prior work. Most CRMs do not surface this history in the pursuit decision moment. Strkr's pursuit record includes a prior-work panel with historical projects of similar type, size, and client, so the pursuit committee has the context when they vote go/no-go.
Prequalification tracking is manual
The owner wants our last five jobs with photos and references.
Commercial GCs face prequalification requirements on most pursuits: last five similar projects, references from owners, safety records, financial statements, insurance certificates. The prequalification response is often assembled by hand from various sources (SharePoint for photos, accounting for financials, HR for safety records, Dropbox for insurance). Strkr's prequalification assembly flow pulls these artifacts from the relevant systems and assembles the response per RFQ in one surface. The 20-hour prequalification response that used to be a week of coordination becomes a 2-hour review-and-submit.
Pursuit team coordination is slack-driven
Who is doing what on the Phoenix hotel pursuit.
A commercial GC pursuit involves a pursuit team: estimator, operations lead, project executive, business development, sometimes design-build architect. Coordinating the team through pursuit activities (site visit, sub-bid solicitation, cost refinement, interview prep) usually runs in Slack with no system of record. Strkr's pursuit record carries an activity log with task assignment and deadline per team member, so the pursuit team has a shared view instead of a scattered Slack thread.
What Strkr ships for commercial GCs
The capabilities commercial GCs actually use day to day.
The capability set below is what Strkr ships on every paid tier for commercial GC use. The configuration draws on work with GCs running $50M to $500M in annual revenue across ground-up commercial, tenant improvements, retail buildouts, and light industrial.
Pursuit tracking object
Models the commercial GC pursuit lifecycle explicitly.
The pursuit tracking object carries project name, owner, architect, project type (ground-up, TI, renovation), project size tier, bidding method (hard bid, design-build, CM at risk, negotiated), pursuit stage (identified, qualified, pursuing, submitted, awarded, lost), bond requirement, bond amount, and the owner contact driving the decision. Admin adds market-specific custom fields in the usual low-code pattern.
Owner and architect relationship records
The two highest-leverage relationship categories tracked explicitly.
Owner accounts and architect accounts have their own relationship records with pursuit history, awarded project history, and project value cumulative. The sales lead can see "which three owners drove 40 percent of our revenue in 2024" or "which architects have referenced us to new owners in the last 18 months" as saved views. The relationship side of commercial GC sales becomes a measurable program instead of a verbal tradition.
Bonding capacity dashboard
Live bonded WIP, projected completion, available capacity.
The bonding capacity dashboard integrates with the accounting system (Sage 300 Construction, Viewpoint Spectrum, CMiC) to pull current bonded WIP. The dashboard projects completion dates from the project schedule, calculates available capacity for new pursuits, and flags pursuits that would exceed capacity when combined with existing commitments. The daily surety conversation becomes informed by live data rather than month-old numbers.
Sub-bid solicitation integration
BuildingConnected and Procore Bid Board data on the pursuit record.
The pursuit record integrates with Autodesk BuildingConnected, iSqFt, and Procore Bid Board to surface sub-bid solicitation status: subs invited by trade, subs confirmed, subs declined, bids received by deadline. The pursuit team sees sub coverage per trade on the same record that holds everything else about the pursuit, which eliminates the context-switch that usually happens 10 times a day during active pursuits.
Prequalification response assembly
Prior projects, references, safety, financials in one flow.
The prequalification flow pulls prior project artifacts (photos, references, project values, completion dates) from the project history, financial statements from the accounting integration, safety records from the HR integration, and insurance certificates from the document repository. The resulting response assembles as a reviewable package per RFQ. The 20-hour prequalification turnaround becomes 2 to 4 hours of focused review.
Pursuit team coordination
Shared task list, deadlines, and status per pursuit.
Each pursuit carries a task list with task assignment and deadline per team member. Common tasks (site visit scheduled, sub solicitation launched, cost refinement complete, interview prep scheduled) have task templates per project type. The pursuit team sees "what is left to do" without a status meeting. The pattern replaces Slack-thread coordination with shared visibility on the pursuit record.
Interview and presentation tracking
For negotiated and shortlist pursuits, interview prep is organized.
Negotiated and shortlist pursuits often involve owner interviews or capability presentations. The pursuit record carries the interview date, the panel composition, the presentation materials, and the follow-up actions. For firms that run 20 to 50 interviews a year, this becomes institutional memory rather than tribal knowledge living in the business development lead's head.
Award rate reporting multi-dimensional
Award rate by owner, architect, project type, size, bidding method.
The award rate report runs across any combination of owner, architect, project type, size tier, bidding method, and time period. The sales leader can answer "what is our award rate on negotiated TI work with architect X over the last two years" as a saved view. The reporting that used to be a half-day spreadsheet project becomes a daily operational tool for pursuit decisions.
Project-to-pursuit feedback loop
Awarded project results feed back to pursuit scoring.
Awarded projects carry back actual margin, actual schedule performance, and actual client satisfaction to the pursuit scoring model. The firm learns which project types, which owners, and which architects actually deliver on the promised margin. The pursuit decisions over time weight toward higher-margin profiles because the data makes it visible.
Bidding method adaptations
How Strkr configures for different commercial GC bidding methods.
Commercial GCs bid under several different methods, each with its own data shape. Hard bid is competitive-low. Design-build is integrated design-construction. CM at risk is construction manager with guaranteed max price. Negotiated is relationship-based without competitive bid. Each requires slightly different fields and workflow.
Hard bid
Classic low-bid competitive with sub-bid aggregation.
Hard bid pursuits run on sub-bid aggregation: solicit subs across all trades, aggregate the low bids, add markup, submit. Strkr's configuration tracks the sub-bid aggregation value, the markup percentage, the submitted bid value, and the ranked position when known. For firms running pure hard bid work, the award rate math is purely price-driven, which the reporting surfaces honestly.
Design-build
Integrated design-construction with architect partnership.
Design-build pursuits involve a design partner (architect or engineer) collaborating with the GC on the proposal. Strkr tracks the design partner relationship as a account type, the design-build team composition per pursuit, and the design concept maturity (schematic, DD, 50 percent CD). The pursuit record surfaces the design-build relationships that have historically delivered awards.
CM at risk
Construction management with guaranteed maximum price.
CM at risk pursuits involve a preconstruction phase (owner-paid or GC-funded) that produces a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) proposal. Strkr tracks the preconstruction fee, the GMP target, the open-book versus closed-book framework, and the shared-savings structure. The pursuit team sees the preconstruction economics alongside the pursuit lifecycle.
Negotiated
Relationship-based with no competitive bid.
Negotiated pursuits run on owner relationships without a formal competitive bid. The pursuit record tracks the relationship history, the pre-selection activities, the capability demonstration, and the proposed project framework. For firms with significant negotiated work (often 40 to 70 percent of revenue at relationship-driven GCs), this is the primary pursuit shape.
JOC and task-order work
Job Order Contracting with pre-negotiated unit pricing.
Firms with public-sector or large-institutional clients run JOC programs with pre-negotiated unit pricing. Each task order becomes a pursuit under the parent JOC contract. Strkr tracks the parent JOC relationship, the individual task orders, and the aggregate value delivered under the program. The reporting surfaces JOC performance per client over multiple years.
IPD and integrated project delivery
Multi-party agreements with shared risk and reward.
Integrated project delivery (IPD) pursuits involve the owner, GC, architect, and major trade partners in a multi-party agreement with shared risk and reward. Strkr tracks the IPD team composition, the risk pool, the target cost model, and the shared-savings waterfall. IPD is a specialty shape used mostly on larger healthcare and institutional projects; firms running this type of work benefit from explicit modeling.
What Strkr is not
The limits for commercial GCs.
Strkr is a bid tracking and pursuit management CRM, not a construction management platform or an accounting system. The breakdown below names the surfaces Strkr intentionally does not cover, so GC teams can plan the complementary tools.
Not Procore
Project execution lives in the CMP.
Once a pursuit is awarded, project execution (daily reports, RFIs during construction, submittals, change orders, meetings, pay apps) runs on Procore, Autodesk Build, or similar construction management platforms. Strkr's role ends at the pursuit-to-project handoff. The project outcomes flow back to Strkr for the next pursuit's historical context, but the day-to-day project management happens in the CMP.
Not an accounting system
Sage, Viewpoint, CMiC stay as the system of record.
Commercial GC accounting runs on Sage 300 Construction, Viewpoint Spectrum, CMiC, Foundation Software, or similar. Strkr integrates with these systems for bonded WIP data flow, but it does not try to replace the job costing, AIA billing, or WIP accounting surface. A commercial GC moving onto Strkr keeps its accounting system in place and inherits the integration via published API patterns.
Not a sub-bid aggregation platform
BuildingConnected and iSqFt handle the sub-bid solicitation.
The actual sub-bid solicitation process (sending plans to subs, collecting bids, aggregating pricing per trade) runs on specialist platforms (Autodesk BuildingConnected, iSqFt, Procore Bid Board, SmartBid). Strkr integrates with these to surface status on the pursuit record but does not try to replace the solicitation surface itself.
Not an estimating platform
HeavyBid, Sage Estimating, Timberline stay for the detailed takeoff.
Detailed estimating (quantity takeoff, unit pricing, assemblies, crew-based pricing) runs on specialist estimating platforms. Strkr integrates with these for the final estimate value flow to the pursuit record. The estimators continue to work in their preferred estimating tool; the output flows to Strkr for the lifecycle tracking.
Not a scheduling tool
Primavera P6 and MS Project remain the schedule system.
Construction scheduling (CPM scheduling, resource leveling, four-week lookaheads) runs on Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project. Strkr tracks milestone dates for pursuit purposes but does not try to replicate schedule-specific primitives. The project execution schedule stays in the specialist tool.
Head-to-head
Strkr vs the typical commercial GC stack.
Commercial GCs typically run Salesforce or Followup CRM for pursuits, Autodesk BuildingConnected for sub-bid solicitation, Procore for project execution, and Sage 300 Construction for accounting. The table compares Strkr's pursuit surface against the status quo for CRM options.
Feature
Strkr
Followup CRM (common commercial GC vertical CRM)
Pursuit tracking object
Purpose-built for commercial GC pursuit lifecycle.
Available with vertical configuration.
Owner and architect relationship records
Native separate account types with pursuit history.
Standard account with custom views.
Bonding capacity dashboard
Native with accounting system integration.
Via manual update or integration configuration.
BuildingConnected integration
Native integration surfacing sub-bid status on pursuit record.
Varies, often requires custom build.
Prequalification response assembly
Native flow pulling from multiple sources.
Manual or partial.
Multi-dimensional award rate reporting
Native saved views across any combination.
Via custom reports.
Pricing per seat
Flat per seat on every tier.
Varies by vertical CRM, often tiered.
Low-code admin
Non-engineer configures custom fields and flows.
Varies, often requires vendor configuration.
Mobile pursuit site visit log
Native mobile app with offline mode.
Varies by vertical.
AI drafting for proposal narrative
Native. Grounded in pursuit record.
Varies, often absent.
How teams use Strkr
How commercial GCs run bid tracking on Strkr.
The patterns below describe commercial GC customer accounts across different revenue tiers, from $45M regional firms to $300M-plus multi-regional firms. Each describes the firm profile, the configuration, and the measurable outcome.
$75M commercial GC, 95 employees
Bonding capacity dashboard eliminated a $4.2M bidding mistake.
A $75M commercial GC had a near-miss where the firm nearly submitted a $12M bid that would have exceeded bonding capacity by $4.2M when combined with existing WIP. The surety call that would have followed would have been a difficult relationship conversation. After implementing Strkr's bonding capacity dashboard, the firm catches these conflicts during pursuit scoring, well before submission. The sales lead reported that the dashboard "removed the moment-of-truth anxiety from every mid-sized pursuit."
$180M commercial GC, 240 employees
Owner relationship tracking drove $18M of targeted BD effort.
A $180M commercial GC analyzed owner relationships in Strkr's dashboard and identified three dormant owners who had each delivered $5M-plus of work historically but had not awarded a pursuit in 24-plus months. Targeted BD effort reactivated two of the three relationships within six months. The reactivated owners drove $18M of pursued work with $11M awarded in the next 12 months. The pattern of dormant owner relationships had been invisible on the prior CRM.
$45M commercial GC, 55 employees
Prequalification response time cut from 20 hours to 3 hours.
A $45M regional commercial GC was declining prequalification opportunities because the response typically took 20 hours of coordination across business development, operations, HR, and accounting. Strkr's prequalification assembly flow cut the response time to 3 hours of focused review. The firm went from responding to 60 percent of prequalification requests to responding to 95 percent, which drove a 25 percent increase in qualified pursuit opportunities over the next year.
$300M commercial GC, 450 employees
Multi-region pursuit visibility with shared bonding and relationship data.
A $300M multi-region commercial GC operated three regional offices with historically siloed pursuit tracking. Each region kept its own pursuit records with inconsistent fields and reporting. Strkr unified pursuit tracking across regions with role-based visibility (regional leads see their region's pursuits plus firm-level aggregates). The sales ops lead at corporate reported that the cross-region visibility surfaced three cases where two regions were pursuing the same owner independently, which the regions coordinated after seeing the overlap.
$95M negotiated-work GC, 110 employees
Relationship-driven firm quantified the historical value of top-10 owners.
A $95M commercial GC with 65 percent negotiated-work mix used Strkr's owner relationship dashboard to quantify historical value from the top-10 owner relationships: $340M of cumulative awarded work over seven years from these 10 owners. The firm redirected business development investment toward deepening these relationships and selectively expanding to similar-profile owners. Over the next two years, revenue from the top-10 owners grew 18 percent while total headcount stayed flat, which was a meaningful margin improvement.
Pursuit tracking that fits the commercial GC playbook.
Start a 14-day trial, import a year of historical pursuits, and see the award rate reporting across owner, architect, project type, and bidding method. The data model fits commercial GC reality in a way general-purpose CRMs do not.
How does Strkr handle the handoff from pursuit to project execution?
When a pursuit is awarded, the pursuit record converts to a project record with the scope, pricing, timeline, team, and documents intact. The project record syncs to Procore (or whatever construction management platform the firm uses) via native integration, carrying over the pursuit context so the project team starts with the full history. The project outcomes (actual margin, schedule performance, change order volume) flow back to Strkr for the next pursuit's historical context, which closes the loop between pursuit decisions and realized performance.
Can Strkr integrate with our bonding and surety reporting?
The bonding capacity dashboard integrates with the accounting system to pull current bonded WIP and project it against schedules. The output flows into surety reporting formats (quarterly contractor questionnaires, aggregate work program updates) that the finance team compiles. Strkr does not try to replace the surety relationship or the bond issuance workflow; it provides the live data layer that the finance team uses to answer surety questions quickly.
How does Strkr compare to Followup CRM or BuildingBrand CRM?
Followup CRM and BuildingBrand CRM are vertical-specific commercial GC CRMs with established pursuit tracking functionality. Strkr's differentiation is the low-code admin layer (a RevOps generalist can configure fields and flows without a certified admin), the flat per-seat pricing without the vertical CRM markup, the native AI capabilities grounded in CRM data, and the integration pattern with the broader modern stack. For firms that want the vertical-specific depth of Followup CRM, that remains a reasonable choice. For firms that want a modern CRM with commercial GC configuration, Strkr is a stronger pick.
Does Strkr model design-build and CM at risk pursuits differently than hard bid?
Yes. The pursuit tracking object carries a bidding method field (hard bid, design-build, CM at risk, negotiated, JOC, IPD) with method-specific fields and workflow. Design-build pursuits track design partner relationships and design concept maturity. CM at risk pursuits track preconstruction fees and GMP target. Negotiated pursuits track relationship history and pre-selection activities. The reporting splits award rate by bidding method so the firm sees which methods actually convert for them.
What is the typical onboarding time for a commercial GC?
A mid-sized commercial GC (50 to 250 employees) typically onboards in 6 to 10 weeks. Week 1 to 2: configure the pursuit tracking object with the firm's specific fields, bidding methods, and project classifications. Week 2 to 4: import historical pursuit data, owners, architects, and awarded projects. Week 4 to 6: enable integrations to BuildingConnected, Procore, and the accounting system. Week 6 to 8: train the pursuit teams on web and mobile workflows. Week 8 to 10: build the reporting that leadership uses for pursuit decisions. Strkr's commercial GC implementation partners can accelerate this timeline for firms that want hands-on help.
Does Strkr support JOC and IPD work?
Yes. JOC programs are modeled as parent accounts with individual task orders as pursuits under the parent, with aggregate value reporting across the program. IPD pursuits are modeled as pursuits with multi-party team composition (owner, GC, architect, major trade partners), target cost model, and shared-savings waterfall. Both are specialty shapes used mostly on specific project types (public institutional for JOC, healthcare and large institutional for IPD); firms running these shapes benefit from the explicit modeling rather than forcing them into standard pursuit records.
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